The Gemini Mama

I am the kind of person who likes to come up with original ideas. It could be the competitor in me, or the artist. I am not exactly sure which side it comes from. Either way it has always been important to me, as far back as I can remember. When it came to hosting my #DisneySide party I have to admit I was a bit stumped, and Pinterest didn’t really have much to offer beyond sugary snacks. In my expierence other than cake, cookies, or cupcakes the kids don’t care what snacks are there, they will eat it or won’t. No, for kids it is all about the activities, so I needed to have some good ones.

After watching Cars two nights in a row the week of the party I finally had an idea. It was the line in the movie when Mater meets Lightning for the first time. Mater says his name, “Mater. Like Ta-mater, with out the “ta.” That was when I knew what I wanted to do with the kids. Plant to-maters, or tow-maters. How ever you would like to spell it. A play on words is fun, and cute, but the 3-5 age range won’t really pick up on that. To make it more Mater-like, I wanted the pots to look like Mater. Tada! Today’s craf-tiviy was born.

Planting “Maters”

You will need;

Seed starter pots

White paper

Tomato seeds

Glue of choice

Googly eyes (optional)

Scissors

Dirt

Water

Children willing to help

You could easily use any cup you wanted for the purpose of this activity, but I chose the seed start pots because they are already brown like Mater, and they can go straight into the ground the way they are.

The first step is to make your pots look like mini Maters. Start by cutting your white paper to look like Mater’s windshield. After you have cut out your windshields cut small rectangles for his two front teeth.

Then glue on googly eyes. I chose to use white glue because it is less toxic than other choices, but it will also dissolve with too much water. Just something to keep in mind, because they might fall off from too much watering. Also Mater’s eyes are actually green, so you could skip the glue and let your little crafters draw in his eyes, with crayons or markers.

Next attach your “eyes” to the top of the pots.

Glue on his two front “teeth.”

Honestly everything up to this point could easily be done by even the smallest crafters. Being that I did this as an activity for a party, I chose to make them in advance. Waiting for glue to dry can be hard, so I wanted to skip that step. When we do this again in the future I will have my kids do 100% of the work. I will make a template of the windshield from cardboard for them to trace.

Now onto the dirty part. Dirt being the key word.

Fill those pots with dirt!

Fill them all the way to the brim, because the soil will settle as you water it.

Now it is time to add seeds! I chose to use cherry tomatoes because they can grow easily in a pot, and I wasn’t sure what all of our guests would do with them. I wanted everyone to have a chance to watch their “Maters” grow.

Once the seeds are in place it’s time to WATER! These kids loved watering their new plants.

Lot’s of helpers.

Then find a sunny windowsill for Mater to sunbathe in and watch your tomatoes grow.

It almost looks like Mater sprouted hair!

What is your favorite activity to do with/or have kids do, at a party? What are your children’s favorite party activities?

I have always liked Disney. I mean even before kids. I actually owned Disney’s Cars movie (and a few others) before I had those two cuties. I also visited both Disney World and Disneyland, before kiddos. For a long time I have wanted to take S to Disney World. It is such a great experience that I wanted to share with him, but then came kids, and the idea to wait until they are old enough to remember it. Well, this year will be “the year.” I couldn’t be more excited. So you can imagine how excited I was to be selected to host not just a Disney Side @Home Celebration, but a Cars themed party too! What a great way to pre-celebrate our upcoming trip with local friends! I received free products in order to host a Disney Side @Home Celebration. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I decided these apple and grape cars looked the most like Lightning McQueen, and luckily my kids agreed. I had a hard time finding healthy Cars themed snack options even on Pinterest. I was intentionally avoiding the “spare tire” doughnuts because I didn’t want to sugar my kids up too much. I think in the end we did well for a late morning play date, and had something for everyone.

Apple slices, red grapes, and toothpicks. If this was for an older age group I might have trimmed the toothpicks so that they fit perfectly, but … 1. That would be a lot of extra work and, 2. It would have made the toothpicks invisible to the 3-5 year old’s, and therefore dangerous.

Francesco anyone? No? Well I tried.

Celery, grape tomatoes, and toothpicks. You’re welcome.

We also had a try from Chick-fil-a and those cute little Lightning buckets, became “chicken buckets.” The kids liked having a little to-go bucket to carry around with them. It work out better than plates.

Carrot and bell pepper dip-sticks. Because I know you are dying to know the carrots were straight from our garden.

I also grabbed Cars and Princess pretzels (you can see them hiding in the back) that were available at Target for Valentines day. They fit perfectly with our theme.

These “stop lights” were everyone’s favorite, and they were gone before the afternoon was over. They were also the most time-consuming because of all.those.little.balls. I used a melon baller, on watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon. Then I used skewers. I made all the balls the night before and assembled the stop lights the morning of our party. Both of my kiddos, ages four and three, helped me assemble these. They both wanted to help, so I figured why not? So round-up the troops and get them to help you with your next party preparation, they might think it’s fun.

No party is complete with out some sort of cake. My daughter especially loves cup cakes. “Cone cakes,” perfect for the “pit stop.” I’m completely corny, I know. I am also okay with this.

I used Duff’s tye dye cake mix, but instead of tye dye I made rainbows. They were really fun to eat. Top with rainbow sprinkles, and it was the perfect lure for the three year old boy in my life. He successfully licked the frosting, and sprinkles, off of 4 cupcakes before he was stopped.

Our guests had a chance to view the latest Disney Parks DVD, in between snacks, games, and Frozen sing-a-longs. Seriously I couldn’t have planned the Disney magic that happened all on its own. Four girls randomly singing Let it Go, and requesting to watch Frozen, in Spanish. You know, you got to change things up every now and then. Sorry Lightning, but you did take a slight backseat to Anna and Elsa.

One part of this party that was exciting for me as a parent was watching the kids play games. In this preschool age group they are just learning about party games. What they are, and how they work, why they are fun, all that jazz. I had two games planned, and 2 craf-tivities. That was too much for the little cuties.

Everyone had a great time with “pin the smile on Mickey.” They each took a few turns, some more than others. It was everyone first time playing this type of game. Well everyone under 30 anyway. How awesome is that! Mickey, in my opinion, is much better than a donkey.

I really enjoyed that everyone was all dressed in their favorite Disney. The moments when I felt that I was too corny, I realized everyone else was too! It was a great time. Our guests left with some swag too. Adults left with HP Photo Paper, Chore Charts for their kiddos, and Disney luggage tags. Kiddos got coloring pages, stickers, Cars pencils, and their living craft (plus whatever goodies they grabbed when no one was looking).

How do you show your #DisneySide? Have you been to a Disney themed party? What was your favorite part?

I received free products in the @ Home Celebration kit in order to host a Disney Side @Home Celebration thanks to Disney Parks and MomSelect. The opinions expressed here, as usual, are my own.

Hi everyone! I know it has been quite a while since I have taken the time to sit down and write. I apologize for that. Life was busy and I gave it all the time I had. Now things are much more calm, and I will return to regular blogging. What you missed while I was gone?

We bought a house! Which is exciting, and exhausting! Exhausting because of all the remodeling we have done, and are still doing. We completely remodeled our teeny tiny kitchen. It is/was so small the listing real estate agent couldn’t get it in one photo. The refrigerator also doesn’t fit, so we have it in the dining room.

Tearing down the wall.

Tearing out the cabinets.

Installing new cabinets and counter-tops.

90% complete, and real life …. my kitchen is messy. In my defense it is 91″x 94″, so two dirty dishes and it looks messy all over again.

After we finished with the kitchen we decided to tear apart our back yard.

Removing a make shift retaining wall.

Then we had to remove 7″ of soil.

Naturally as major home repairs go, this project was not without set backs. Hello flat bobcat tire!

The almost finished product. We still have a bit of filling in to do, and grass to seed. Still this patio is fully functional, it does need more shade though.

As well as the home projects we got married at the end of September. Yay!

There was a lot of DIY, love, and help to make our day possible. I am thankful for all of it. I am also thankful that it is over. I think buying a home and getting married in the same 6 months, might have been crazy. I still have to write out thank you cards. By still have to write them out, I mean I still need to order them. I will get it done, I promise.

This weather really make me want to knit all the things. Maybe I can write a thank you card for each row that I knit? Oh right, after I order them, that is!

Have you heard of Grocery Outlet? You have? Well have you stopped in to check them out yet? Trust me their prices are worth it. That is what really drives us to a store, isn’t it? Need a little more enticing? Well, if your family is anything like ours then you might be grilling for Mother’s Day, and Grocery Outlet’s new ad is perfect for all those grill masters out there!

Grocery Outlet Ad Highlights From My Family

Jennie-O Turkey Burgers 3 LBs $5.99

Bar-S Jumbo Jumbos 5 LBs $5.99

Lightlife Portobello Mushroom or Veggie Burgers 12 oz $1.99

Kettle potato chips 13 oz $2.99

Earthbound Farm Organic Salads 5 oz 2 for $5

These items and prices are valid for CA locations 5/7-5/13

There is much more in this ad, but these items will more than get my BBQ started!

What is Grocery Outlet?

It is a deep-discount store. A little more about them from their website;

“The premise is simple: We offer brand name products at up to 50% off conventional retail prices. Our offering is wide: groceries, frozen, deli & refrigerated, produce, fresh meat, general merchandise — seasonal products, housewares, toys, and gifts — health & beauty, and a most impressive inventory of beer & wine. Our buyers shop the nation and the world by traveling thousands of miles each year just so we can offer the best brand-named products for less than you would pay conventionally. We love to save you money.”

Great news! I have one $25 GC to Grocery Outlet to giveaway to one of you!

If you would like to win a $25 GC to Grocery Outlet please enter with the Giveaway Tool below! This giveaway is open to US residents, ages 18 and older. The giveaway will run from May 7, 2014 through May 13, 2014 at 11:59 PM PST. Entries will be verified. Winner will be notified via email, and will have 48 hours to respond and claim their prize or another winner will be selected.

Gwen from The Gemini Mama received a gift card to facilitate her review, no other compensation was received. This giveaway is in no way associated with social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Now that I updated you on all that yoga business yesterday, I figured that you might be interested in everything else. Well, by itself that is kind of a joke, but we can try anyway. I really meant it yesterday when I said that I didn’t capture a lot of random this month.

In my yoga adventure I have dragged daddy into it a few times. He won’t tell you that he likes it, and will not yet go to a class, but I’m working on him. I want some acro yoga in my future. Who doesn’t wanna fly?

Impromptu beach day? Yes please. Sand toys are a constant in our car, and now so is an umbrella. We decided to stay nearby while daddy finished up at work, and a trip to the beach was the natural choice. Thank you San Diego!

Easy yoga stretch that is hard for me.

Hard yoga balance that is easy for me.

Kiddo who will handstand soon.

She was so cute. I wanted to have a picture taken so that I can see how deep into a scorpion forearm stand I get, but this image was the best. It makes my heart happy.

We went to the Grocery Outlet’s grand opening and they had face painting there. The lady did a great job on both kids, and K1 got exactly what she asked for. I have no idea what is with the hand placement in this photo. I just asked her to look at me, she did the rest all on her own. No need to say “strike a pose,” she’s on it!

Lastly yesterday. I was tagged on instagram to #strikeapose twice and I was finally getting around to doing it.

Did you see that? What? Oh yea I wore a dress yesterday. I guess talking about it the other day was enough for me to make it happen. Yeah for accountability! Also, join in! I wanna see all the pretty dresses. Snap a shot of yourself in a dress and share on instagram with #WearMoreDresses2014. You don’t have to type it the silly way that I just did, I did that so you could read it.

Hello lovelies. I haven’t run away, life has just been crazy, and stressful, and mostly crazy. Just to fill you in …… in addition to all the regular every day, we are wedding planning (think DIY wedding), and buying a home. If all goes well we will be into our new house by June, but I’m not counting any chickens. Oh yeah it has a chicken coop too! Hah.

Anyhow, I told you before that I started doing daily yoga to relieve migraines at the start of February. Well, it turns out that I love it, I mean, I like it a lot. It’s sort of like the grown up, socially acceptable form of gymnastics, but it’s not, all at the same time. Weird I know. I was previously very close minded about yoga, and thought it was lame. Yup. I thought it was just stretching, and blah blah …. sitting still is not my thing. Naturally I thought that yoga was not my thing. Turns out I was wrong. My previous opinions of yoga were also wrong.

I liked it so much that I found an awesome studio locally and have been taking classes when I can. With my new found interest in yoga I sought out inspiration via Instagram. There are so many “insta-yogi’s,” as I like to call them, it has been easy to find inspiration. Instagram is an interesting place to connect with like minded people. The yoga family on there is mostly supportive, and you can find lots of fun “challenges.”

In April I decided to participate in one of these challenges. I figured what better way to learn more about yoga, and see more of what it has to offer then by doing? This is also why I did not post any insta-Friday’s during the month. When I know I “have” to take a specific photo each day I found myself taking fewer spontaneous ones.

Here are all the photo’s from the challenge.

There were ton’s of new-to-me poses, and some familiar things.

Some things that felt great, and others that seem as though they will never feel comfortable.

There were awkward poses that probably shouldn’t be done in public, and poses kiddos wanted to try.
There were fails (read face-plants) , and successes.

There were moments of struggle, and moments of cheesy achievement.

Yes there are only 20 photos there. The other 10 days I posted videos. While I love you all I will not be posting them here, if you would like to view them feel free to check out my instagram GT4936.

All in all it wasn’t so bad. I am not sure if I am stronger physically from it, but I honestly believe I am stronger mentally from it. I told myself that I was going to do another challenge for May, but honestly I think life is enough of a challenge right now.

I feel that I should also mention that I have not had any migraines since starting yoga. I can not say with 100% certainty that it is the main factor causing that, but I can say that I believe it is. Before I started doing yoga I had a minimum of one migraine a month. The migraine I had in January lasted three days. That is the longest I have ever had a migraine. If you are curious with how or what I started with follow to Mind Body Green. I spent about 15-20 minutes each day at first, now I do what feels good.

Remember those goals I set, back in January? I’m not so sure I am doing a great job with them. I plan to review them sometime this month and evaluate myself, but for now let’s talk about dresses.

Basically I haven’t worn any in the last two months. I have been wearing work out clothes a lot, but dresses, no.so.much. When I wake up in the morning I tell myself that I am going to the gym, so I get dressed to do so. I tell myself that I will come home and shower and then change into clothes for the rest of the day. What actually happens doesn’t always match what I tell myself will happen.

You can see I had quite a few failed shopping attempts. It is challenging to buy a dress off a shelf somewhere. My body does not fit into a cookie cutter mold. I am also sure that a lot of you also have this problem. Maybe that’s why making your own clothes is increasing in popularity.

I am glad that I am ahead of all the dress wearing I did last year, because so far I am sucking at this goal of mine.

I could really use some inspiration. If you are on instagram snap a shot of you in a dress and hashtag it WearMoreDresses2014 so that I can see your style!